10

Jul

Does Your Business Appeal to Picky Consumers?

Posted by: Carolyn Young

by flickr.com/jamesmorton

I’m getting married this weekend, and the internet has been, by far, my #1 resource for all things wedding related. If I was searching for a vendor, and a company wasn’t listed in the first couple pages of the search results for my searches, or if their website didn’t have a Google Page Rank of at least 2 or 3, then I immediately relegated them to the back burner, or just looked elsewhere.

I’m a pretty picky consumer I guess. But I am not alone here. Consumers in general are choosy, and getting choosier, when they’re searching out new products or services online. Attention spans are shortening, and you have just a second to catch their attention, or they’re gone.

During my wedding research, if I was looking for a local San Francisco Bay Area service, and they didn’t have a review on any sites, particularly Yelp, then again, I was hesitant to contact them. With so many potential fraudulent or unestablished businesses on the web, I wanted to make sure that I was dealing with a reputable company. Reputation management is no longer just about having a website.

With so many larger chain businesses vying for the same customers as you, it is important to have a presence online in order to gain credibility in the eye of the consumer. You don’t need to compete head to head with the Fortune 500 – it isn’t necessary to have the flashiest and most complicated website or try to have a site that is on par with the big dogs – but  more and more consumers consider is a deal breaker if you don’t at least have some online presence legitimizing your existence. But you can’t stop there. Do you serve a local audience? You better make sure you’re responding to managing comments on your Yelp and CitySearch profiles. Make sure you’re listed in Google Local. Create profiles for your company on Twitter and Facebook if appropriate. It’s ok if you don’t have time to actively manage all these accounts all the time – just having them is better than nothing. Plus it can help you snag several spots on the 1st page of Google.

It can take time to gain credibility and manage your reputation online. But if you start now, and foster a web presence that is reflective of your brand, it can increase the likelihood of picky people like me giving your business the attention it deserves. But that website you built in 1997 using FreeWebs or Website Tonight? Yeah, that’s just gotta go.